


Glow Sticks

by DarkNymfa



Series: Ectoberweek 2020 [6]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, One Shot, ectoberweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27281959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa
Summary: Later, Valerie would worry about the implications, about how it might affect her. But she was here to have a normal evening, for once in her damn life, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Valerie Gray
Series: Ectoberweek 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984810
Comments: 17
Kudos: 178





	Glow Sticks

**Author's Note:**

> Almost done, almost done. Just got one more sequel to post (and, uh... write, first). Anyway, have fun with Valerie!

Quite frankly, Valerie didn’t know what she was doing here.

Yes, she’d gotten invited to a blacklight party by some of the A-listers, but that wasn’t because they _cared_ about her. Hell, there wasn’t even anything special about _her_. Just about every one of their classmates had gotten invited. Even Danny and his friends were here!

And if she honest with herself, that might just have been why she was here at all. She didn’t care much for parties, not anymore, nor did she care about her lost popularity. Her old friends had abandoned her, and new friends…

Well, aside from Danny, she didn’t really have any of those. And counting Danny as a friend was kind of a stretch, too, after she’d broken up with him. But, god… Valerie needed it. She needed _someone_ to just be _normal_ with.

Steeling herself, Valerie cracked the glow sticks in her hand until they lit up in bright pinks and oranges. With short, resolute motions she curled them around her wrists, turned them into armbands.

Then, before she could change her mind, Valerie entered the darkened room.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but it was immediately clear that almost everyone in her class was here. Definitely busy and crowded. Ugh, why was she here again?

Right. Because she wanted to be a normal teenager for once.

Valerie stepped forward, planning to go and find Danny. Instead she was, almost instantly, intercepted by Star. The girl’s white shirt shone in the blacklight, her teeth equally bright when she grinned at Valerie, curling a hand around Valerie’s arm and tugging her to the side. “Valerie! I didn’t think you would come!”

Yeah, neither did she, to be honest. “I… It was kind of a spontaneous decision.”

“Well, you’re forgiven for not telling me, then.” Star patted Valerie’s hand, then grabbed it and held it closer to her face. “Wow! Look at that paintwork! How long did you prep for this _spontaneous_ decision, Val?”

“Uh…” She pulled her hand away from Star, frowning down at it. Straight lines cut through her flesh like circuitry, glowing a fluorescent pink. A _familiar_ fluorescent pink. “Well, you know… I had the stuff anyway, I figured I could put it on and… then decide?”

Star snorted disbelievingly. “Whatever makes you feel better. I gotta go before Paulina sees me talking to you, but you enjoy yourself, okay?”

“I’ll try,” Valerie told her dryly, playing with the glow sticks around her arm, pretending that she hadn’t been checking out her supposed paint job. “You have fun too, Star.”

The other girl grinned at her, then turned around and darted away into the crowd. Sometimes Val wished they could’ve remained friends, too, but it was hard to ignore that Star chose Paulina over her every single time. No matter how important it was, and how _un_ important Paulina was… It was always Paulina, and never Valerie.

And quite frankly, Valerie was done with being the second choice.

She worked her way to a less crowded corner, glancing around to make sure no one was keeping a close eye on her before tucking herself away. On close investigation, both her hands seemed identically pattered, the circuitry perfectly mirrored.

With a frown, she pulled up her sleeves. Yeah, it continued all the way up her arms. It must’ve been from the suit, the new one. She thought it was some kind of nanotech, small machines which tucked away flat against her body, so small they couldn’t be seen. In her darker moments, she considered the possibility that they hid away _inside_ her body, yes, but…

For them to glow under blacklight like this… It must be ectoplasm. Everyone knew that ectoplasm glowed bright under blacklight, and the coloration matched exactly with the shots from the suit.

But, god… what did that mean for her? That she carried so much ectoplasm in her body, so well integrated that she hadn’t even noticed?

It… It didn’t matter. There was nothing she could do to change it, not for now. Later, she would worry about the implications, about how it might affect her. But she was here to have a normal evening, for once in her damn life, and that was exactly what she was going to do. Tonight, this circuitry, this ectoplasmic ghost hunting suit, was no more than a spectacular paint job.

So, with her mind thus made up, and all the important matters locked away behind a wall of determination… Valerie once more set out to track down Danny Fenton.

Not that finding Danny ended up being that difficult. She had barely made it halfway through the room when she heard Dash yelling and, figuring it was either something involving Danny or something involving ghosts, she turned that way.

She found Danny crowded against a wall by several of the jocks, including Dash and Kwan. However Danny had dressed up for the occasion, she couldn’t tell with the jocks between her and him, but it was clearly causing a reaction.

“Dash, man, you still beating up people who won’t fight back to stroke your ego?” Valerie shoved him, creating an opening in the wall of football players so she could see their faces. “If you want a fight so badly I’d love to give you a wooping.”

Dash turned to face her, eyes narrowed and mouth opened to respond. But something about her must’ve made him change his mind, because he snapped his mouth shut.

“Oh, I see,” Dash said after a long moment. “You two freaks are matching. How cute.” He scoffed, then waved to the rest of the jocks. “Come on, let’s go somewhere else before it spreads.”

She watched them storm off before shaking her head and turning to look at Danny properly. He looked ruffled, his hair mussed up and his black shirt askew like Dash had grabbed onto it. Green splatters littered him, like he had sprinkled fluorescent paint all over his clothing as decoration.

Green paint, or… ectoplasm? It certainly looked like the shade of green ectoplasm normally was, and it _would_ be an easy enough resource for Danny to access. But using it to paint his clothes? Really?

“Did you really use ectoplasm for those splatters?” she asked him, incredulously. The look on his face answered her question before he could even open his mouth, and she shook her head. “Never mind. Oh, you got it all over you too. Danny, this stuff is dangerous, you shouldn’t let it…”

She stopped, staring down at the pale hand she held. The ectoplasm she had seen, what she thought was a stain, wasn’t just splattered over his hands. It formed neat lines, perfectly replicating the human vein system with unbelievable detail.

“I, uh. Had Sam paint it?” Danny tried, the lie stupidly poor even _without_ his abysmal skill at lying. “Anyway, I know the dangers of ectoplasm, Val, _duh_. Don’t you know my parents?”

“Danny, seriously.” She ran a finger down the bright vein on the bottom of his wrist, ignoring the way he cringed. “I can feel that there’s no paint here, just skin. Also, you’re a terrible liar.”

He huffed. “What, and you are? You’re criticizing _my_ paint, but I can’t feel any on your fingers, either.”

“Hm.” She paused, throwing a brief glance down. Right. The circuitry continued down all the way to her fingertips. He would’ve felt the paint when she touched him, too. “I think… we should talk. Somewhere private.”

“Yeah, I guess we should,” he agreed, before sighing, deep and weary. “Let’s go outside.”

Valerie hummed, shifting her hand so she gripped his wrist instead. She didn’t _think_ he would escape into the crowd otherwise, but, well. Better not to risk it. She wanted to get this conversation over with as soon as possible.

She weaved through their partying classmates, Danny right behind her. A few times they got bumped, Danny more so than her, but they made it through well enough. At the door, Valerie released him again, letting him step through first.

“You got somewhere in mind?” she asked, watching him take lead.

“I… might know a spot.” He shot her a brief look over his shoulder, but turned back almost immediately. “I guess we’ll see.”

Well, didn’t that sound ominous. “Guess we will,” she agreed.

Honestly, she felt like she’d left her brain back at the party. First the discovery that her own suit was not only ectoplasmic in nature, but that it had integrated into her _body_ , and now this? Danny, with enough ectoplasm in his veins that they glowed under blacklight? What did it all _mean_?

She followed Danny outside, then around to the back of the building, where he stopped to peer upwards.

“What, you want to get onto the roof?” she asked skeptically, looking up as well. Sure, she could manage it with her hoverboard, but still… He didn’t know she had that. Did he?

“Not much risk of anyone interfering or overhearing,” Danny pointed out, shrugging. “But I guess we would need to get up there first.”

“And how had you imagined that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Even if he knew, would he admit as much?

Danny frowned up, then shook his head and met her eyes. “Well… Do you trust me, Valerie?”

What was this, a trick question? If she said yes, would he ask why she hadn’t told him about being a ghost hunter?

“I… guess I do?” she settled on, quirking her eyebrow even further. Tried to come across as questioning as possible. “Why?”

“Just… don’t freak out.” Before she could react to that cryptic statement, he stepped forward, grabbing her by her upper arms. And then, suddenly, the ground was gone.

They floated, Danny just above her, grip sturdy but not painful. He met her eyes steadily, his own as bright fluorescing green as his veins had been under the blacklight.

After what must’ve only been a short moment, Danny lifted them up further. Their flight was stable and fairly fast, and before she knew it, her feet touched down on the surface of the roof.

Danny let her go the moment she stood stable, landing a little distance away from her. The moment he stopped floating the glow from his eyes faded. His face felt much darker without the glow, out here in the dark.

But also… what the hell was that? He’d just… _floated_ , like a ghost? Glowing eyes and all?

“What the hell was that?” she snapped, despite herself. “I _know_ you’re not a ghost, but— that—”

“Yeah,” he agreed wryly, shrugging. “I’m… kind of a half-ghost? I have ghost powers.”

Well. She hadn’t expected him to be so straight-forward about it.

“I… Look,” he said, suddenly, like he was cutting himself off. “I wasn’t planning on telling, okay? No offense, but I know what you’re like with ghosts, so… Some basic self-preservation, right?”

“Right.” She frowned at him, tried to process the fact that he was _half ghost_. What did that even _mean_? “But clearly you changed your mind. Why?”

“The lines on your arm.” He gestured vaguely, like he wanted to point at them and then realized they weren’t visible outside the blacklight. “Do you know what that is?”

Right, so he probably knew she was the Red Huntress, huh? “It’s ectoplasm, isn’t it? I thought as much when I saw it glow.”

“Yeah, exactly.” He nodded, his expression softening a little with… relief? “Oh, that’s good, I don’t have to break that news to you then.”

“It’s not the same as with you, though,” she pointed out. “With you, it clearly followed the veins in your body. The lines on me were different, more like circuitry.”

“Circuitry?” Danny repeated. “I guess that that makes sense, since you got your second suit from Technus. The ecto-contamination sucks, though.”

“But it’s not like with you?” she prodded. “You say you’re half-ghost, but I’m not, then?”

“Well…” He paused, clearly considering that. “No, I don’t think so. I think you _could_ become half-ghost, but you’re not currently. The ectoplasm is bonded to you, but it’s not _part_ of your body, not sustaining it like with me. That’s why you only have the suit, and no ghost powers to go with it.”

She considered that. “Sounds like there’s a _“but”_ missing.”

“ _But_ , I don’t know how it will hold up,” he admitted with a grimace. “Technus isn’t exactly a human expert, and I don’t expect he made the suit with much of a thought of how it’ll hold up, or how it’ll affect you over time. It’s definitely possible that it might turn you half-ghost over time, slowly leaking ectoplasm into your system.”

Yikes. That didn’t sound very appealing.

“Can it be undone, then?” She cocked her head at him. “I assume it can’t be with you, because you said that it’s _sustaining_ you. But for me?”

Danny hummed. “Maybe. But that’ll make you lose the suit, you realize that, right? And you might remain susceptible to ectoplasmic contamination, so you’ll need to give up on ghost hunting entirely.”

“Oh.” Could she do that? Just give up on ghost hunting like that?

But what if she didn’t? What if she became half-ghost? It didn’t seem to affect Danny too badly, but… But how much did she really know about Danny Fenton?

“Don’t make a decision yet,” Danny said, breaking her out of her thoughts. “Take your time to think it over. We can start with looking into it a little more, figuring out how the suit works. Maybe there’s no danger of it turning you half-ghost at all. Maybe it’ll only happen under the same kind of circumstances as with me, and the suit is just an indicator that it wouldn’t kill you.”

He shrugged. “I really can’t say, not without knowing more. But we can fix that, at least. How does that sound?”

“What would that involve? Learning more?”

“Come back home with me. I’ll call Sam and Tucker once we get there, see if they can come in.” He snorted at her look. “Valerie, honestly. There’s nothing I keep secret from those guys. They literally watched me die, or, well. Half-die. If we want to learn more about the suit, we’re gonna need everyone.”

Danny paused. “Well. Maybe not Jazz. We might need her to run interference instead, to get my parents out of the lab.”

“The more I hear about this, the less I like it,” Valerie admitted with a shake of her head. “But I guess I can’t exactly back out. So, we go to your house next?”

“Yeah.” He raised one hand to rub the back of his neck. “So, uh. Are we walking or flying?”

“I… guess we might as well fly?” She had never flown in company, only ever chased after ghosts, but… “You can ride on my board, maybe?”

He snorted. “No thanks. It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of space on there.” He grinned at her, suddenly. “Besides, I love flying. Definitely my favorite power.”

“Oh.” Well, he would, wouldn’t he? He loves outer space. The gravity-less-ness of ghost flight is probably the closest you can get on Earth. “Fair enough. I guess I’ll try to match your speed, then.”

She let the suit cover her up, the tiny metal plates clicking together to form a protective layer. Even now, knowing what it was made out of… it didn’t _feel_ like ectoplasm.

Metal pooled together underneath her feet, forming her pronged hoverboard. She lifted up slightly, hovering just above the roof.

“Ready?” she asked Danny, who still hadn’t moved. Who had been staring intently at her. Observing the suit, maybe?

“Uh, yeah, one moment.” He shuffled, like he was suddenly uncertain. Then, squaring his shoulders and straightening his back, he met her eyes through the helmet. Light flashed.

And suddenly it was _Phantom_ who stood there, instead of Danny.

“I’m ready,” the ghost said, and… and…

And his voice sounded just like Danny’s, except with a ghostly echo.

How had she missed it before?

“Valerie?” he asked, suddenly a lot closer than he’d been before. “Hey, are you okay? Sorry, I thought you would’ve— No, that’s a stupid excuse. Sorry, I… I guess I was just afraid of telling you outright.”

“What happened to the self-preservation you mentioned earlier?” she blurted out, one hand snapping out to catching the glowing white glove reaching for her. “Because really, Danny, reaching for a ghost hunter whose intentions you don’t know?”

He stilled, shock on his face. “Right. Um. Don’t tell any of the others.”

She snorted, letting go of his wrist again. “I’m starting to think that they spend a lot of time keeping you out of trouble. Since you dated someone who wanted to _destroy_ your alter ego.”

“Do you know how much shit I caught for that?” He shook his head, a wry smile on his face. “I swear, Sam and Tucker were seconds away from killing me themselves.”

“Stop inviting trouble, then, Fenton.” She slapped him on the shoulder, then let her hoverboard raise her higher. “Come on, let’s get going. The sooner we get this over with the better.”

“Yeah, yeah. We both know you can’t keep up with me in flight, anyway.” He shot her that awful cocky grin Phantom loved to sport, then suddenly shot off.

“That’s cheating!” she shouted after him, already dropping into a crouch, pushing her hoverboard to go as fast as she could.

Maybe the suit would turn her into a half-ghost as well. Maybe pushing it like this would only speed up the process. Who knew?

But, really. Would it be so bad? With Danny’s guidance, with his help? Because he _would_ help. She knew him well enough to say that much.

Yeah.

She would be fine.

**Author's Note:**

> For day 6, Glow Sticks, I used this idea from my fic file (and then kinda went off because I got an idea I enjoyed writing more):  
> smth with that idea of ectoplasm glowing under blacklight? some kinda blacklight party at Casper High, people notice Danny has ectoplasm stains on his clothes. They try to confront him and realize his veins are glowing the same color.


End file.
